Novel composite oxygen‐containing resins with effective adsorption towards anilines: physical & chemical adsorption

BACKGROUND: The adsorption resins have been successfully used for the treatment of various types of industrial wastewater due to their excellent advantages of high degree of harmlessness, wonderful resource utilization effect, and adjustable material structure. However, the adsorption capacity of traditional resin to the high polarity aniline has been limited since the adsorption mainly relies on hydrophobic adsorption. RESULTS: In this study, novel oxygen‐containing resins were prepared by modifying a benzene skeleton through chemical functional groups screening and physical structure regulation. The influences of functional groups to the precursor resins were thoroughly studied and the adsorption capacity of the dihydrofuran‐2,5‐dione modified resins was 7.9% higher than the precursor resins, exhibiting the unparalleled adsorption activity to p‐aminobenzoic acid (PABA). Subsequently, a series of dihydrofuran‐2,5‐dione modified crosslinking resins named FSG1‐5 were prepared with various physical structures. The resin FSG‐2 exhibited the best adsorption property, as the adsorption capacity to p‐aminobenzoic acid was 28.3% higher than H‐103 (a commercial hyper‐cross‐linked resin). CONCLUSION: On the basis of the comparison of kinetics, thermodynamics, and resin's physicochemical structure, FSG‐2 could achieve efficient adsorption to aniline compounds by physical adsorption, such as π‐π conjugation, molecular size effect, and chemical adsorption, including hydrogen bonding and acid–base effect enhanced the adsorption interaction, which laid a theoretical foundation for the design and preparation of new materials. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry